Dhar & Hoon gets Modi-Apollo International

Dhar & Hoon is in an upbeat mood. After the prized win of the Honda Siel business (Honda City, Accord etc), Modi-Apollo International is its next big catch.

Dhar & Hoon bested a number of ‘national level' agencies to pick up the creative business for Modi-Apollo International (MAI), a joint venture between the KK Modi Group and the Apollo International Group of USA. However, the company was not willing to disclose the names of the advertising agencies in the fray and the size of the advertising budget. The reason: MAI is in the launch phase. All the company officials would say was, "Some of Delhi's top agencies were called for a strategy and a creative pitch." The media part of the business has gone to Media Edge (of Rediffusion). For the record, Media Edge is the AOR of Godfrey Phillips India, of which MAI is a sister concern.

MAI is set to roll out its new education service very soon. It plans to set up Institutes aimed at providing high quality, affordable education, recognised by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation & School Improvement of America. The company plans to offer Bachelors and Masters degrees from Western International University, in Management and IT.

To this end, the brief for the agencies in the fray was to develop a communication and creative strategy for the launch of an Institute for higher education in India, which will have accreditation from a US university and backing of a known business house of India (the KK Modi Group). Quite obviously, Dhar & Hoon's presentation proved to be a clincher. "Dhar & Hoon is known for its creative, which is based on sound strategy. They had done their homework well and their approach showed a clear perception of our business," says Arun Kapoor, CEO, MAI.

The Modi-Apollo International account beefs up Dhar & Hoon's roster, which boasts of clients like Honda Siel, Dabur's Real juice, Freelook (men's, women's and kids wear brand) and Milk Food's Mithai Café.

To begin with, the use of media by Modi-Apollo International will be skewed towards print. Among the below-the-line activities, the thrust will be on direct mailers, tele-marketing, public relations, outdoors and events. At the moment there are no plans of launching a multi-media campaign. The initial investment that has gone into the project is over $1.5 million. MAI's first campus will be in south Delhi. It is also planning to set up campuses outside Delhi after a couple of years.

The advertising strategy is more likely to be informative in nature. Spelling out the objectives of the campaign, Kapoor says, "It would basically be an announcement of the launch of the Institute. This would be done by creating awareness about the uniqueness of our products and, of course, by positioning our Institute as among the best - offering International Education at affordable prices." Unique offerings, as the company puts it, include practice-oriented education, facilitative and participative model, practitioner faculty, flexi-timings to suit the needs of students, state-of-the-art campus at a convenient location and an American degree.

To put things in perspective, Apollo International was founded by John Sperling and Dr Jorge Klor De Alva. John Sperling is the founder of Apollo Group and Dr Jorge Klor De Alva is a past president of University of Phoenix. The Apollo group controls the University of Phoenix, the Western International University, the Institute for Professional Development and the College for Financial Planning. The Apollo Group is USA's largest adult educator with annual revenues of $800 million and market capitalisation of over $5 billion. The group has over 120 campuses and 1,50,000 students.

On its part, the KK Modi Group is a diversified conglomerate with turnover of Rs 2,500 crore. The key companies of the group are Godfrey Phillips, India's second largest cigarette manufacturer, Modicare, Indofil Chemicals and Modi Entertainment, a joint venture with Walt Disney. © 2002 agencyfaqs!